1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a television recorder, more particularly a digital television recorder, and a method for recording interactive services together with the television programs to which they relate.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the development of digital television broadcast, it has become possible to provide interactive services, for instance making use of the Multimedia Home Platform (MHP).
Interactive television content, such as MHP, can transmit applications relating to a television program in the same transport stream as the television program, for instance inside modules through a Digital Storage Media Command and Control (DSMCC) object carousel. The DSMCC modules are transmitted in the same transport stream as audio/video content. The source DSMCC data/object carousel can define how and when to send the module/files in the transport stream. The files are repeatedly sent over time and a digital television receiver merely awaits the file it requires as the carousel proceeds.
It is well known to provide a television recorder for recording television programs onto a storage medium, such as a hard drive, disc or tape. In this respect, it is also known to record with the television recorder exactly the audio/visual experience of the user during original reproduction of the television program. In other words, if the user accesses and makes use of an interactive service during the original live broadcast of a television program, those features accessed and used by the user and as presented to the user will be recorded for subsequent reproduction. The recorded information is thus no longer interactive.
Various proposals have been made with regard to recording interactive services.
US 2006/0212915 discusses the possibility of extracting interactive television modules/files from the original transport stream and storing them outside the transport stream in separate files. US 2002/0170074 proposes extracting and storing only parts of a carousel that are required by a particular application. U.S. Pat. No. 7,000,245 proposes storing data objects, accompanying object properties and a file table in a storage device.
These earlier proposals suffer from the problem that, during recording of a broadcast television program, not all of the corresponding interactive service may have become available such that the recorded interactive service will be incomplete. In the case of US 2002/0170074, it is indeed intended to record only parts of the available services. Also, these earlier proposals require separate storage of the interactive service data and, hence, non-standard processing for any reproduction device.